Thursday Training

Hi

VeloTron

I still intend to try to raise my FTP a little if I can and I'm going to try doing some shorter intervals (10 minutes) at a wattage somewhat above my last tested threshold to try and "pull" things up a little. I believe that this will also have a +ve impact on my VO2 Max which should show eventually in an improved MAP test result. I'm hoping this, coupled with weight loss, will help me climb shorter (1-2 mile) climbs a little better than I presently do.

What I did for this session was 4x10 minute intervals at 320W (with 5 minute recoveries) which I know to be about 10W above my threshold. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the session which was fortunate, because I didn't. I didn't know whether I would get to the end of the session, but I did :-)

In summary I ended up working for a total of 40 minutes at a level at least 20W higher than I would normally do my L4 work and in overall terms my 60 minute average wattage during this session was 276W, that's a hard 60 minutes for me, especially when 40 minutes of it is at 320W.

My plan is to try to do this session once per week as well as my other work and replace an existing SST session with it. The longer term plan is to continue in the medium and longer term with this type of work and see where it takes me.

This 75 minute session yielded the following:

TSS: 101.5
IF: 0.901
NP: 282W


[Uploaded 16/07/2009 19:18:09]

Wednesday Training

Hi

VeloTron

Just a steady L3 session today @ 255W which felt surprisingly comfortable and passed without problems. Going to be starting a different session tomorrow which I'm not looking forward to too much.

I'm planning to start doing some 10 minute L4/L5 boundary efforts which I think will be very challenging but I'm hoping they will fill what I feel is a bit of a gap in my training. Planning to try doing 4 of them with 10 minute efforts but am not sure if I'll make it, we shall see.

If it goes Ok that would give me 40 minutes of training at upper L4 which would I am sure have a +ve impact on performance. My weight continues to fall very slowly, it's a long hard job.

[Uploaded 16/07/2009 10:01:47]

Tuesday Training

VeloTron

Continuing with my aerobic conditioning with some more sweet spot work @ 285W. HR a little higher than for Sunday's session but still very encouraging.

My weight management plan is continuing to bear fruit and the blubber is slowly reducing. Pretty depressing how enjoyable and easy it is to gain weight and how unenjoyable and hard it is to lose it again!

Still, to hit my target of a power to weight ratio of 4W/kg @ threshold I had a choice. I could either reduce my weight to 77kg or raise my threshold to around 330W. On balance it's likely to be easier to reduce my weight. Now, if I could just do both... ;-)

[Uploaded 14/07/2009 21:19:42]

Monday (not) Training

Hi

Yes, it's that day again, Monday, and time for a rest day :-) Busy day at work so not very restful really but it was nice to go and see my Mum in the evening.

Sunday Training

Hi

VeloTron

Time to get back into a bit of harder work and this went surprisingly well really as I had approached the session with some trepidation as it's been a while since I did any structured SST work.

Anyway, rode one of my .erg files which delivered 2x20 @ 285W which I managed without any particular problems, my HR was surprisingly low for this wattage. My average heart rates for the 2 efforts were 148BPM and 152BPM respectively which I was pleased about, some while ago my "standard" HR was 150BPM for L3 work @ about 255W so something has changed.

Definitely time to get stuck back into some solid aerobic work and I plan to be back into my L4 work again next week.

[Uploaded 14/07/2009 21:02:39]

Saturday Training

Power-Tap

Back out onto the road today for the first time since I returned from The Alps and all seemed to go well. Rode for about 2.5 hours and covered just under 50 miles which was fine. NP for the ride was 261W with a TSS of 171. I felt as if I was getting back into my training properly today and I hope that over the next few weeks I'll be able to pick up my form again and also enjoy the short events I have planned, with the emphasis on ENJOY!

Rode for about half of the route today with a mate of mine and he seemed to be going well which was good. If the weather holds I should get out again tomorrow for a decent spin and then it's back to the plan for next week.

Onwards and upwards! Oh yes, if you want to see the route I took today click here.

[Uploaded 11/07/2009 14:05:39]

Friday Training

Hi

VeloTron

Back to the slope and today I decided to ride it all the way to the top so a full 60 minutes starting at 300W and slowly rising up to reach 300W by the end of the hour. Surprisingly challenging by the end as obviously by then I'd spent quite a few minutes working pretty hard even though my HR didn't get that high.

I think I'll produce a slope going again from 100W but this time going up to 350W and see what that feels like. Doubt it will feel very nice as the last 15 minutes will commence at 287W and finish at 350W. Hmm...

Makes a change anyway! ;-)

[Uploaded 11/07/2009 13:54:33]

Thursday Training

VeloTron

Continuing with my experiments training on my 100-300W slope, nothing too taxing as I can always decide just how far up the slope to ride :-) Just turning over still this week so as previously I rode up to about the 500kcal mark or around 265W and called it a day.

Quite like this session and I think what I might do is set up a series of different slopes and look at what TSS they deliver and see whether this might be a useful way of adding a bit of variety to my training, certainly won't do any harm.

Quite surprising how challenging it can be when it just keeps getting harder and harder!

[Uploaded 11/07/2009 13:39:11]

Wednesday Training

Hi

VeloTron

I always find it quite hard to get going again after a big event so this week I'm just going to try to keep plugging steadily away and then slowly start to build again from next week. My main priority at the moment is to get my weight properly under control and I'm making good progress with this. My target remains to hit 4.0W/kg @ threshold before the end of the season and then to build on this over the Winter.

Just some steady L3 work today @ 250W, went fine.

[Uploaded 11/07/2009 13:28:01]

Tuesday Training

Hi

VeloTron

Just a very straightforward and short session to start the training programme off again. Just a L2 spin really riding an ever increasing slope from 100W up to just over 240W, nothing fancy, just reminding my legs that activity is still going to be required!

[Uploaded 08/07/2009 05:43:45]